City of the Bat
by Chimaera Chameleon
Summary: A routine patrol becomes not-so-routine when Stephanie Brown, AKA Robin, stumbles (literally) upon a mystery from years earlier - a mystery with ties to the present criminal underground and which may have deadly repercussions.


Hello my dear readers.

Wow, has it been a long time.

This story has been percolating in my mind for quite some time. The greater story is completely planned out, but still mostly unwritten. But I figured I could post this first chapter, as it works well as a stand alone, if nothing else.

Enjoy!

(I do not own Batman. Nor the song "Bad Boys" aka the COPS theme song.)

C.C.

* * *

 **I City of Night**

Stephanie Brown had been Robin for two weeks

And she couldn't be more excited about it. This whole Robin deal was so much more awesome than her stint as Spoiler.

This was her chance to prove that she could make it in the male-dominated world of superheroes. That's right, universe: Stephanie Brown was here and she was gonna kick some major bad-guy behind!

She had followed some perp to one of the shabbier parts of Gotham. And by shabby Steph meant "had hardly been looked at since even before the earthquake and the whole cut-off-from-the-world thing." It's not like anyone had really lived here anyway for them to care about its upkeep.

Gotham was dark in even the better areas of the city (since the weather apparently hated this place just as much as the guys who ran the country) but in places like this, where power had been cut off and never restored, the rotting buildings were little more than black shapes against a dark gray sky.

Lucky for her the Robin uniform came with this cool night-vision filter built right into the mask!

Yeah, this Robin thing rocked.

(Even if it was sadly lacking in that very particular shade of purple)

The girl dressed as Robin came to a halt at the edge of a rooftop and froze.

 _No!_

The street was empty and the guy she had been following (He was _right there_ a second ago!) was nowhere in sight.

 _No, no, no._

 _Ok... ok think, Steph. Think like a Robin, think like Batman. What would they…_

She quickly brought her hand up to her mask, hoping this one had-

 _Yes!_

Her sight blurred for a minute before reforming to amorphous swirls of blue and green. She turned her head slightly, searching…

A yellow trail headed down the street.

 _Hah!_

She memorized the direction of the line of yellow steps and switched back to night-vision. They had gone down the street along the half-fallen building across from her before ducking into a teensy space between buildings, too small to be called a proper alleyway.

 _Ok. Game on, Robin_.

She swung down to the street below and landed silently. She congratulated herself mentally for that – it was so hard sometimes to get that right. Landing silently from a three-story drop, tether or not, was not something that just anyone could do.

One of her many theories was that Batman had come up with some sort of sound-reducing bubble thing for when he did it. Cuz there was no way a man that big and carrying that much armor and other stuff could land behind her again and again without her even knowing.

And it's not like he hadn't made a bunch of other nearly-impossible toys just because he could.

Robin crouched in the shadows across from the tiny alley, watching for a moment. She switched her mask back to infrared – the yellow trail was slowly becoming greener – to check for anyone who may have been waiting to ambush her.

Yeah, that kind of thing may have happened once or twice while Batman was training her.

There was nothing but more of the blue and purple waves, with the trail of yellow-green steps heading straight down into the dark. Robin kept the filter on as she crept further in.

And promptly kicked a glass bottle that went skittering away, crashed into a few more bottles, bounced off the wall, and hit an old metal garbage can with a very loud clang.

Steph wasn't sure whether to laugh or groan.

It _would_ be just her luck that she'd find the best way to announce her presence. A ninja she definitely was not.

Well, did Batman seriously expect her to be one with this costume, anyway?

 _Ok, let's get this over with._

She strode down the alley like she owned it, no longer caring when broken glass crunched loudly under her boots or more bottles and cans ended up kicked away to add their own harmony to the cacophony.

She almost started singing "Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do?" but figured that would be overdoing it. Just a bit.

The trail exited the alley and turned left. Steph exited the alley and turned left.

And the trail went cold.

Literally. She had her heat-vision filter on so Steph knew what she was talking about.

The yellowish-orange trail just stopped right at the edge of the curb.

 _So not fair!_

She toggled the infrared off to stare at the spot. Nothing unusual about it - just a dirty curb, same as every other dirty curb in this city.

 _Ok, so what could have happened here…?_

 _Alien abduction? Probably not, but I'll keep it on the list._

 _Spontaneous human combustion? Eh, no burn mark, nope._

 _Dimensional portal? ...maybe._

 _Jumped into a car-?_

Steph moved closer to study the street. There was a black smear of tire treads in the right place for someone gunning it near the mystery spot. A quick check with the infrared showed that, yes, the marks were ever so slightly warmer than the surrounding asphalt. She thumbed the transceiver in her ear.

"Hey O, I've got a favor to ask."

"Reading you, R."

O was Oracle, the Bats' resident all-knowing, all-seeing form of awesome.

"The little perp I was following just disappeared on me. The trail went cold, like it went from yellow to nada at the side of a curb. I think he jumped in a car."

"How long?"

"Uhh… well I first lost sight of him about fifteen minutes ago…"

"Tracking all vehicle movement that may have originated from your current location in that time frame."

"You are made of awesome-sauce, O."

"It's nice to know someone appreciates me."

As she waited for Oracle to find something, Steph decided to hop up onto a roof and give the ruined neighborhood a bit of a look-see from a birds-eye view.

Birds-eye. 'Cause she's Robin.

She giggled at her joke.

The neighborhood didn't look any prettier from up high. Most of the buildings were one wrong step from collapse. There had once been a few streetlights but between the cut power and the broken lights they were less than useless. The asphalt of the streets was potholed and rippled and cracked (hey maybe that would make it easier to find which way that car went…)

Steph did another internalized happy dance when she realized she had thought of that entirely on her own.

The street was open and clear for as far as she could see on both sides.

To wait for Oracle or not…

"Eenie meenie minie moe," she whispered under her breath, "catch a villain by the toes. If he hollers, knock him out. That doesn't rhyme and I. Don't. Care."

Her decision making skills told her to go left.

Still no O…

Robin jumped the gap between buildings and kept going. This must have been a lucky street as it seemed to have escaped most of the damage that had half-demolished the surrounding buildings. It boasted a few cracks but was entirely drivable. The first branch point had several deep cracks running across.

Robin deduced that someone driving through this would have taken the easier route and kept straight.

So… straight it was.

Robin followed the street for several more blocks. The road was still deeply cracked in places, potholed in others, but overall a vehicle could still drive through without much trouble.

Until the entire trek hit a dead-end.

Steph groaned. Then cursed her supposedly lucky purple rabbits-foot (which she had left at home so maybe it wasn't the foot's fault, but it still made her feel better). Then groaned a curse at stupid criminals and stupid cracked roads and other stupid things which were… well, _stupid_.

Up 'til now the road had been passably clear.

But the gaping hole that stretched across the street was not just a little pothole that would rattle a car's undercarriage. It was wide enough to swallow a car whole, and from where Steph was standing it looked deep.

 _Hmm. Looks like it broke into one of the sewer pipes…_

Steph knew she should go back to her starting point and wait for Oracle, but… it was a deep, dark hole. In Gotham City.

Deep, dark holes in Gotham pretty much always held something interesting.

It took only a few seconds for Steph to make up her mind, and a few seconds after that for her to scan the area for possible dangers. Seeing none (well, she had seen some broken glass bottles but those were only a danger to her stealth) she slid down to street-level and darted to the giant hole.

Yeah, it was deep but not nearly as deep as she had first thought. With her night-vision filter she could see to the bottom – barely ten feet down.

 _Pssh. Easy._

She jumped, trying (and mostly succeeding) not to make a sound as her boots hit the bottom.

The space was dark ( _duh_!) and damp and slightly smelly and there was a strangely warm breeze at her back…

Steph flipped over to heat-vision. The grainy view afforded by the night-vision turned into blue and purple with clouds of green and yellow.

 _Found something_ …

"Hey O," she whispered into her mic. For some reason it seemed wrong to speak normally here.

For a long moment (she wasn't worried, of course not, her heart just raced from excitement…) there was silence over the radio.

"Reading you, R."

…and that totally wasn't a sigh of relief.

"I think I found something interesting."

"Your position has moved from when you radioed for assistance."

"Uh yeah…" she smiled sheepishly, "But I found something else now."

"Something as important as apprehending a criminal?"

"….maybe?"

And that was a sigh! O hardly _ever_ sighed! At least not over the radios.

Steph was sure there was an accomplishment somewhere in there.

"Very well, R. What have you found?"

"Well, it's a big, open crack in the road – I think it opens up into the sewers or something. It's really dark and warm in here-"

"You went inside?"

"Yeah…?"

There was just silence over the radio for a very long moment.

"Okay… continue."

"That's about it, only the warm air seems to be coming from deeper in… I'll have to go further if you want anything else."

Another very long moment passed. Steph flipped her mask back and forth between night-vision and heat-vision.

If she did it quickly enough she could almost see an interesting patter-

"BG is close to your location – she'll be there in a few minutes. You may proceed with caution if you keep radio contact."

 _Sweet. I get back-up!_

She took a deep breath and told herself to concentrate.

"Roger-oni, O."

Robin stepped into the warm darkness, guided by the wispy clouds of heat.

 **/\\\o/\\\**

Batgirl's patrol of the harbor was cut short by O's voice over her comm.

Robin needed backup for an "interesting hole in the street."

Batgirl wondered if she had hit her too hard that last time.

But O had given her instructions, and O's authority on these things was higher than even Batman's.

And it was only five minutes away. And the harbor was looking quiet tonight, anyway.

Batgirl swung silently through the night, hoping Robin's "interesting hole"was actually interesting after all.

 **/\\\o/\\\**

The allure of a deep, dark hole in Gotham city becomes much less exciting when said hole becomes less interesting and more…

"Come in, R."

"Here."

…smelly.

Robin had been desperately attempting to breathe as little as possible as she made her way further down the sewer pipe. Sadly, for all its awesome little perks, the Robin costume did not come with a mask that covered her nose.

"BG is en route to your location."

 _Hope she has a nose made of steel._

"Cool." Steph tried not to gasp as the smell got stronger.

Okay, so sewers weren't exactly supposed to smell like fresh laundry and Alfred's cookies but this was getting ridiculous. What, did someone _die_ down here?!

Steph really, really, _really_ hoped not.

She flipped through the mask settings to distract herself.

Yellow and green clouds…

Colorless yet sharply detailed…

Entirely black (she had to stop moving for a few seconds) but then everything was flashing in pulsing lines. Bat-Echo-locating-thing!

Steph kept it on and found herself thoroughly distracted for the time being.

From what she could see in the weird sort-of pulsing images the pipe ended about thirty or so feet ahead. Of course, it opened up into something the echo-thingy only showed as a big, dark hole so, honestly, that didn't tell Steph much.

Although maybe it would smell better wherever the pipe was going…

Probably too much to ask.

Steph stopped where the pipe stopped being a pipe and turned into a big, black nothing.

To wait for BG or to keep going….?

Decisions, decisions.

She flipped her mask from the echo-thing through the other settings.

Black.

More black.

Green-yellow-orange clouds for a cha-

 _Hold up_.

Yep. It was definitely much warmer in the black hole in front of her.

Steph felt a surge of excitement wash over her. She had _found_ something. Not sure yet _what_ that something was, but _she_ , Stephanie Brown, current Robin, had followed her own gut and found something entirely on her own.

Yeah, that felt pretty good.

She couldn't help but smile despite the smell.

"Robin."

Steph most definitely did _not_ jump in the air and scream.

Ok, so maybe she jumped a little.

But she definitely didn't scream. No way, Jose.

She only turned to face the red-orange-yellow figure after a moment to let her heart slow down. 'Cause Cass would just _know_ that had startled her and would hold it in reserve for the next time Alfred made cookies and it was practically a death match to get the last one and… yeah, blackmail. Cass already had enough as it was.

"Hi Batgirl!"

 _Hooray for back-up!_

"Oracle said you need assistance."

 _Hey wait!_

"I didn't tell her I _needed_ someone. I just found something and O said you were coming to look too!"

"Sounded worried. Like you had been in trouble."

"No, no, no. Just _found_ something. Wanna see?"

"Is it trouble?"

"No! Well… um, no, it's not. Or not right now?" Steph shrank a little at the little glare she knew Cass was giving her. It was kind of a standard expression.

"If it is to be trouble then I think I have no choice. Let's go."

And Batgirl swept past her into the solid darkness.

"'Why thank you, Robin, for finding something interesting,'" Steph whispered to herself as she followed. "'Not a problem, Batgirl. Happy to be of some assistance.'" The room- hole- whatever it was they had walked into was still a solid wall of black and Steph wondered how Cass knew where she was going.

Maybe she should've eaten her vegetables more often when growing up… they helped with seeing in the dark right?

Did Cass eat her vegetables growing up?

 _At least I can still hear her._

Steph knew it was only for her own benefit. Cass walked like a ghost-cat normally, so the occasional step of a foot in front of her was most definitely deliberate.

"'I know it must be hard, what with not having good vegetables when you were a kid. But don't worry; I'll help you, dear friend.' 'Thank you, dear friend, for your concern but there's nothing to- OOOF!"

Her dear friend had stopped suddenly and hadn't warned her!

Robin was smart enough to know not to make a big deal about it right away. She flipped through her mask's filters.

Nope.

Nope, again.

Pretty orange-yellow and…

That was definitely another tunnel-pipe in front of them.

 _Cass totally sees in the dark._

Steph waited a minute for Batgirl to say something. All she did, though, was stand there.

She tried very, very hard not to fidget or just say something 'cause the silence in the dark routine was getting boring. And a bit creepy too, but boring sounded better.

Finally, Batgirl began moving again, and Steph heard a whisper over her comm.

"Follow, but be silent."

And didn't _that_ sound a bit like a reprimand. Steph saluted to the back of her friend's head in lieu of a verbal response.

A moment later, Robin and Batgirl crept forward into the warm, not-quite-as-smelly-as-before darkness of the pipe to try and find Robin's _something_.

 **/\\\o/\\\**

There were no words to describe Steph's horror at what they found.

After following the tunnel through several twists and turns – always taking the path of ever increasing warmth – the two girls had discovered the door to something very much like an old bunker. The door was open (which was super weird), and releasing the warmth generated within. This led into a long hallway with about a dozen doors total along either side. The very first door – locked of course, but c'mon they were _Bats_ for crying out loud – opened into a room which was unlit.

It smelled like death.

And she wasn't exaggerating this time, either. It wasn't the putrid smell of rotting trash or decaying vegetable matter (which she had compared to death many times before, especially when her mom made her clean the fridge), or the unwashed sourness of far too many people in Gotham.

Someone had died, or was dying in there.

Cass led them in.

All she could do was stare wordlessly, jaw slack and her hands clenching with the desire to _do_ something, as Batgirl made her way silently through the dark room. About a half-dozen or so beds were in the room… child's beds. No, toddler's, like crib-

 _They're cages. For… for_ kids _. Who would_ -

"-Robin."

Cass's voice seemed to echo in the small room.

"Yeah…" When had her voice ever sounded so small?

"We should search other rooms. Most are empty here."

"Yeah…" What was she agreeing to again?

"Robin!" She felt something impact hard against the side of her face, right where the mask left skin and bone vulnerable.

 _Ow! That hurt… ow! What-_

"Help or leave, Robin."

Cass had a point, there, and it pulled Steph back from her fairly rapid descent. Okay, yeah, the room smelled of dying things, was made specifically for children, and there was just something so very, very _wrong_ about that… but she was _Robin_. She was the person who stopped this kind of thing.

She could do this.

Robin took a deep breath ( _ignore the smell, ignore the smell_ ) and nodded firmly to Batgirl.

Batgirl stared at her for a moment, a very long moment, before turning to leave the room.

"You take left doors."

She noticed, after the two of them had returned to the hallway, that the left side only had four doors, including the one they had just checked. Normally, this would have probably led to an epic pouting session but - just this once - Steph was thankful for Cass.

As she made her way to check the rooms she thumbed her com to Oracle.

"R reporting."

"Reading you, R." Her voice was a bit fuzzy. Robin figured there was probably enough metal and concrete between her current spot and the surface that most radios would be a lost cause, but Batman was nothing if not over-prepared for everything.

"We may need back-up." Robin paused a moment. "And possibly paramedics."

The line was silent a moment.

"B is en route, and I'm standing by on an ambulance."

The door unlocked with a soft click and she opened it as quietly as she could. There was a similar smell here as the last room, but it wasn't as strong – more sickness then death. A quick sweep with the night-vision filter showed more of the crib-cages, and she could hear breathing - slow and labored but still breathing.

Robin pulled back and moved even faster to the next door.

"Better make that several ambulances, O"

 **/\\\o/\\\**

After she had checked the second door (AKA the other room of Death), third door (only a storage room, filled with dozens of file cabinets, to her immense relief), and the fourth (a very large laboratory of some kind, probably used for horrible, horrible things but currently empty) Robin followed the sort-of hallway to its end. She found… well, she thought it looked more like a tank's door than any normal door, but it was opened a crack so any protection it may have once offered was pointless.

She went through anyway after telling Batgirl about it.

There was a staircase behind it, heading up. An old, creaky, metal one that she wasn't really sure would hold her. But she wasn't going to discover anything by being afraid of a little danger so it only took her a few (long) minutes to reach the top.

She found another door.

This one was closed. And locked with no less than three deadbolts.

She was ready to explode, honestly, from the suspense this little discovery of hers held. But, she still held herself in check and went with a bit more caution this time as she put her ear to the door. No vibrations, no voices, no sounds. She felt sure enough to begin cracking the locks.

Seriously, what _was_ this place?!

The door opened to (what a surprise) another hallway.

She was getting tired of _hallways_. Maybe she'd use that as her new swear word.

The _hallways_ hallway was still dark, but seemed more open. She thought she could even feel a breeze…

It opened up into another large space, but this one was lit by the faint bit of moonlight that managed to break through the clouds and stream through one of the many broken windows.

It looked like an old warehouse.

A quick, and silent, sprint to the window showed that it faced a street lined with several more nearly-identical warehouses.

"Hey, O."

"O here."

"I think there's another way in. Have B come to my current location if he can, but I'm not sure if anything outside is clear so he should be on the lookout for trouble."

Wait, dumb statement. Batman was _always_ on the lookout for trouble.

"I'll be sure to tell him." _Yeah, that was definitely sarcasm._

"Umm, yeah. Thanks."

Steph really, really, really did not want to go back down there.

Stay and wait for Batman to show up or go help Batgirl…

Decisions, decisions…

 **/\\\o/\\\**

There were eight rooms along the right side of the hall.

Batgirl searched each of them.

One laboratory.

Two large empty rooms that she would have to study more closely after her search for any survivors.

Five bedrooms.

Seven bedrooms total, each holding four beds. Twenty-eight children.

Most of them would not make it through the night, she knew, medical assistance or not.

Cassandra would have been disturbed by the concept, would have railed against the helplessness for a moment, but would have accepted it, even if she did not like it.

Batgirl heard the breaths and the heartbeats, and added the numbers, and knew who was already dead.

When Batman arrived minutes later she had the full details ready for him.

 **/\\\o/\\\**

Stephanie Brown stood on the roof of the building across the street from her Interesting Something. Batman stood next to her and on his other side Batgirl crouched to watch the proceedings.

Four ambulances. Each carrying at least two kids.

And that wasn't even mentioning the nearly dozen-and-a-half kids who were too far gone to take up the much needed room.

( _They're dead Steph. Not just unconscious. D. E. A.-_ )

 _Hallways!_

Eh, didn't really have the right kick to it.

Batman spoke as the last ambulance was heading down the street.

"Continue your patrols. I'll finish here."

Steph was not gonna argue. Yeah, it was her find, but she didn't think she'd be able to handle going back down to that pit alone.

Those poor kids…

Robin turned to follow Batgirl.

Okay, this evening?

 _So_ not awesome anymore.


End file.
